WH Wants More Jail Time for Hamdan

[unhappycamper]

WH Wants More Jail Time for Hamdan
October 20, 2008
United Press International

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba -- A Bush administration move to keep the driver of Osama bin Laden jailed at Guantanamo Bay beyond his sentence is being criticized by his military defense attorney.

Salim Ahmed Hamdan, 40, is supposed to be released Dec. 31 after being sentenced in August by a military jury to 66 months, with credit for 61 months already served, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

But administration officials want Hamdan, a Yemeni captured in Afghanistan in November 2001, to serve a longer sentence.

"If the government doesn't honor the verdict of the jury, it clearly demonstrates these really are show trials," Hamdan's lawyer, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer, told the newspaper.

Hamdan was convicted of providing aid to terrorists, but administration officials say the judge at the tribunal, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, erred by giving him credit for time served. They also say the crimes for which Hamdan was tried are independent of his status as an enemy combatant, which allows the United States to hold him at Guantanamo Bay indefinitely as an enemy soldier.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/wh-wants-more-jail-time-for-hamdan.html?col=1186032310810

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[aquart]

2. Only if he shares the cell with George and Dick.